This is what happens when you train most American youth to become social-media influencers, financial traders, leftist political activists or self-absorbed sexual deviants.
Which occurred first?
You’re on the right track there. Public high schools once had vibrant trades programs. Wood shop, metal shop, etc. Most of those classes are gone now.
George W. Bush is responsible for much of that. His ‘No Child Left Behind’ Law emphasized math and English, but ignored the trades. Out went the trades, to be replaced by more math and English classes.
So kids who wanted to learn a trade were stuck analyzing poetry instead.